5 Nov 2011

a dream come true! coconut chocolate date cups

Last night I dreamt I was at a party with all my friends, on a boat. We were all dancing and havin' a great time when someone was like - "there's raw vegan prizes!"
I won a raw vegan peanut butter cup! In my dream, this translated into this thing in the shape of a peanut butter cup, but the chocolate part was coconut butter, and the filling was dates, nut butter and cacao. Yum!
So I woke up and I thought - "I need to make this". Thus today I made my dreams come true... deliciously, healthily true.

I'm tired of hearing people say coconuts are fattening because they have a lot of fat. This is simply not true. In fact, unless you're eating buckets of coconut butter everyday, it will probably help you lose weight; as the animal fats or processed oils in your body are replaced with mean and lean medium chain fatty acids (of saturated fat). THESE fats found in coconut have no cholesterol, and they have anti-viral, anti-microbial and anti-fungal properties. They also have a crazy amount of anti-oxidants which fight cancer; cholesterol-lowering properties; and skin-moisturizing abilities (Wolfe, 2009). I use coconut oil on my skin and hair almost every day.

Did you know? Coconut water is almost identical to blood plasma. And greens are basically chlorophyll (which is just like hemoglobin). Blood is made up of 55% plasma, and 45% hemoglobin - so when you blend a drink of 55% coconut water and 45% green smoothie - you get a blood transfusion!

Coconut Date Dreams: makes around 4

1/4 cup coconut butter

2 Tb cashew butter

1 Tb almond butter

3 soaked dates

1 Tb honey/agave/maple syrup

3 t cocoa

Some vanilla and salt, to taste

Melt the about 1/3 of the coconut butter and pour a very small amount into the bottom of 3 cupcake papers/molds... perhaps 1/2 cm? (However much coconut butter you want to be on the bottom)

Put these in the fridge.

Next, blend all the other ingredients until smooth. Taste it... yum!

When the coconut butter has re-hardened in the molds, drop a scoop of the date mixture into each, make sure they're not too tall, and don't touch the sides. Refrigerate again.

When they've hardened a bit more, pour the rest of the coconut butter over each (you may have to melt it again). The melted coconut butter should just cover the date mixture.

Put 'em back in the fridge and let them harden up, until they're white. Then take them out of their molds and voila! Delicious for your mouth, skin, hair and cells!

Oh. My. Goodness! For the love of all things coconut (which, seriously, I am addicted to) I need to try this! Unfortunately, I am a bit low on funds and don't have coconut butter. *sigh* Maybe someday...

Coconut butter is incredibly easy and not at all expensive to make! I buy bulk organic unsweetened coconut shreds from my local natural foods store and use it for all kinds of things. I don't mind if my butter is homemade and therefore not always completely smooth and perfect - I think its fun to do it yourself and besides, I love coconut in all its glorious forms!! Look here: http://www.rawmazing.com/homemade-coconut-butter/

You're my hero!! Made these & they turned out perfectly. The crunch of the coconut oil cups is a beautiful thing. I wonder if you could mix cacao powder into the coconut oil & a bit of maple syrup (essentially like your raw chocolate recipe) and make the cups chocolately? Will try that next time. Thanks again!

I just came across this via pinterest. Wondering if I could omit or change the honey/agave/maple syrup to stevia and still end up with a good texture. Since the whole CaNDIDa thing, stevia is what I get, and I don't throw a fit. This is all somewhat new to me, so I am fearful to try new recipes as it is all a bit costly to just go out and experiment. I would appreciate anyone who knows of a conversion chart out there.Thanks!!